the soup was awesome. Thanks y'all. I wish I didn't have to work in the am. I'll see yall tomorrow when I get done.

Hitting the road at 0600 in the morning. See y'all there. Gonna do Talimena on the way.

I was sure looking forward to making it this year, but i'm sitting here with a cast on my arm for another week. Hope everybody has a good time and be safe. I'll be watching to see what adventures Phil gets into.

Phil made a slurred speech on the picnic table last night, after we surprised Thad (ARHillbilly) with a cake and gift for his 50th birthday. The day started soggy. We got soaked to the bone in rain, but then it cleared up and was just and epic ride from there.

The good part: We left at 9:00, Joe and I got back to Kingman straight up 6:00. No major issues with us or our bikes. Might have made a couple wrong turns on not turned where we should, but that is part of the adventure. Not a could in the sky all day, and we were greeted by the hot Kansas winds at the border.

The bad: We watched 5 - 7 bikes go across the highway ahead of us north of Jane. We waited a couple minutes for the light to change then turned down the same road they went down. Maybe a couple miles down the road we came around a sweeping turn, going down a pretty good grade, and saw a couple cars stopping on the opposite side of the road and one guy hopping off his bike headed for the right ditch. The ditch was about 7 - 8 feet deep, and upside down in it was the tail gunner from the group we just saw cross the road ahead of us. Only the guy just ahead of him saw him go down and turned around. The rider was conscious laying on his back, with an obviously nasty compound break either in or just above his right wrist and a fair amount of cuts and abrasions. Joe went back to the curve and slowed down traffic. We stayed with them until the Law Enforcement arrived and his group turned around and came back looking for them - maybe 30 minutes or so, then pulled out to make room for the ambulance and other LEOs arriving. It was a narrow 2 lane road, it was just a medium curve, but he said the front just drifted out from under him and he went off the road. He actually stayed upright going down the ditch for 50 - 75 feet or so, clipped off a steel reflector arrow post, then the bike flipped and threw him about 30 feet on down the ditch past the bike. He landed about 10 - 15 feet short of a 30" culvert. I talked with him until another big group of riders coming from the other direction and one was an EMT who took over about 5 minutes before the first Patrol truck arrived. The down rider was 65 years old and from Chicago. He said the bike was a 2012, I have no idea what model buy looking at it upside down but it was big and had all the parts for a full touring bike scattered about in the tall weeds. They were just riding out from Beaver lake.

Be careful out there guys!!!, that was the 2nd down rider we came upon this weekend.

ride safe, mike

Glad y'all made it home safe! It just goes to show you how fast things can go wrong!

Overtons

JimH and I are just about to hit the road.

We're probably going to stay here another day or two. It's just too nice not too!

The Overton's

Phil left about 12:30. We're out for another ride.

D.Overton wrote:
We're probably going to stay here another day or two. It's just too nice not too!

The Overton's

I can certainly understand that! Especially with all of the preferential treatment you are getting from the park staff. . . .

I am out of gun range now aren't I???

Thank you again for all the great food and hospitality! It made the whole M&G extra special as far as I am concerned.

mike